Visual: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjMSkNX7cXU

the year is 3049.

some would call it fate, a destiny foretold; others, a coincidence, a simple glitch in an algorithm buried on a server somewhere, lost in time. for whatever reason, the collected music of MC Freeman, carefully uncovered and meticulously archived by Internet historians, is the earliest-dated primary document in our recorded history. all else we know is lost.

at some point - it is difficult to say exactly when - a great Tearing in the fabric of time upended our reality, eliminating almost all recorded and unrecorded knowledge of events prior to 2099. strangely, none of us can recall the exact day most of our history was lost; there are many still who have no idea that anything has changed. of course, we know our present, and Internet archaeologists have uncovered content dated as far back as the early 22nd century. but, aside from the songs and albums of MC Freeman, our collective memory has been wiped. everything before the Tear is gone, and it could have happened at any point in time.

the many, many years of human achievement, of history, of art and culture before this music, are missing. there are hints as to other people and things from before the Tear. the urtexts mention figures like Big Cig, Pathos and Research Anderson, fated contemporaries of MC Freeman. but every document dated after MC Freeman simply references its predecessor, and crude JPEG drawings and lyrics in lines of code are still being excavated from buried server farms. all anyone seems to remember is this ancient wanderer, a speaker of songs and singer of tales.

ever since the texts' discovery, the people have treated them as their way of life, and MC Freeman their holy avatar. each society selects an MC Freeman, chosen and named from birth after the death of the previous MC Freeman. they are trained and raised to recite the sacred incantations and engage in "vibin" rituals, attempting to conjure the spirit of MC Freeman to intuit the way forward into the future for their people. they do so in hopes that the spirit of the original MC Freeman will be with them and guide their way.

my name is MC Freeman. the year is 3049.

i am the latest incarnation of MC Freeman in this life. i was born in 3025, the first to be born after the death of the old MC Freeman, a prophet revered in his day. i was whisked away by the elders and raised in solitude, out in the Wastelands. like every MC Freeman before me, i absorbed the urtexts and gained the knowledge of our avatar. but - unlike any other MC Freeman yet, perhaps even the original - i may have seen the impossible.

i cannot explain how, or why, but i have happened upon a Rift in time. i was reciting a sacred lyric to myself on my front porch when i saw it. it winked into existence, a shimmering black sphere hovering three feet above my front yard. gazing into it, i saw the old MC Freeman; somehow, i knew it was he without even a thought. around him, i saw a world that looked more and more familiar. i knew then that this must be the world of the past, the earth walked by the original MC Freeman, our history alive again.

i must go back. perhaps it is fate, and perhaps it is coincidence, but i feel that, as MC Freeman, i must reckon with my history. i must go back in time and meet the original MC Freeman. i must figure out why he is all we can remember, and what else there is.

the year is 2018.

my name is MC Freeman.

i am from the future.

this is my first mixtape.

it's called BLAZE RUNNER 3049 HOSTED BY RESEARCH ANDERSON.

Research hosts this one, believe it or not.

i hope you enjoy it.